Three Isn't a Crowd
by brightspark
Summary: A short arc of five fics for the themes attraction, romance, passion, intimacy and commitment. SeiferxSquallxZell.
1. Focus

"Leonhart?" Seifer whispered, a little uncertainly.

"Dincht," the figure supplied, "Squall's unconscious."

"Chickenwuss," he sighed, in relief, and let Zell help him up. He leaned against him, the world a blur, and wished he wasn't trusting his balance to someone so many inches shorter than him. "What happened?"

"You were attacked," Zell said, unnecessarily, and helped Seifer over to a bench. "Me and Squall were passing by... bastards hit him over the head."

"Oh. Is he okay?" There was the sound of movement and a creak of leather in answer, and Zell went to help Squall over to the bench, hovering anxiously. Seifer gazed at him blearily, rubbing at his eyes and directing the question at him now. "You okay, Leonhart?"

"I've been better," Squall answered, harshly, and Seifer nodded, blinking him into focus.

"Shit, will you make your mind up which one of you you are?" he asked, and smiled slightly when Zell snorted, but he wasn't kidding because he couldn't focus on just one Squall, there seemed like there were thousands of them, all juxtaposed together.

"You might have a concussion..."

"We'll wait a bit and when I feel a bit better I'll call a transport," Squall said, decisively, and Seifer decided that the power suited Squall. Finally, he got his vision in focus and looked at Squall, and decided that even with a split lip and a black eye and a hazy look as if he wasn't all there, Squall was gorgeous. Zell wasn't so bad, either, even if he _still_ hadn't got rid of the chicken-style.

It was good to see them. Seifer felt a familiar butterfly feeling in his stomach, but he wasn't focusing on that right now, because he was having a hard time focusing on _anything_.

"Great," he said, softly, and meant it.

There was a short silence, and he cleared his throat.

"Don't you two...?"

"We don't hate you," Zell said, simply, and Seifer nodded, moving to rest his head against Squall's shoulder, without another word. They weren't expecting an apology; he'd never given them one before, not for anything.

"Thanks," he said, and he meant, thanks for everything. Thanks for forgiving me.

They both smiled, and not a word more was said. 


	2. Habits

Sorry it's been so long since I've updated this! I actually did all the updates on my LiveJournal account, but kept forgetting to do it here. Everything will get uploaded now. :)

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It soon became habit, to meet after Squall's work was all done and Zell was tired enough to be quiet, and Seifer had done with whatever Seifer did all day. It was a habit to all collapse together in front of the tv and watch whatever crap was on, or if someone could be bothered, whatever movie had been rented. And other little habits crept in with it.

When they were watching something that was supposed to be scary, even if it wasn't actually, they would gradually creep closer together. It inevitably started with them all three sat on the sofa, and would end with them all tangled together somehow.

Even if it wasn't scary, there were habits they formed. Seifer would always sit on the left of the couch, Squall on the right, but at the end of the movie there'd be no distance between them at all and no indication of how that'd happened. Zell would always start sitting on the floor, somewhere in the middle, and he'd end with his back leaning against their legs.

They didn't talk about it, but it occured to them all on several occassions that they knew what was happening. And none of them made an effort to stop it.

Little habits grew into big habits that, if broken, would have made things feel wrong. And the big habits grew habits of their own, like the soft drag of Seifer's fingers through Squall's hair when they crowded close, like the way Zell's head inerringly found Squall's knee.

And then came the day when all three realised, with nothing more than a smile and a shared look, that there was _no_ stopping it now.


	3. Close, Closer

With three guys sort of fumbling into a relationship, there comes a point when there's just too damn much testosterone. People in Garden were taking bets as to when one of the three would crack and just pounce on one or both of the others. Squall was icier than ever, Zell more hyper, and Seifer more snappish.

Sexual tension, Quistis said to the others, with a little amused smile that she was careful not to let any of the three see.

But for them, it happened naturally enough. Others expected one of them to _snap_, but it was more of a natural progression.

Seifer kissed Squall first. And Squall shifted, dislodging Zell's head from his knee as he kissed back, wrapping his arms around Seifer's neck and moving to press close, closer, as close as he possibly could. He made a soft sound and Zell turned, looking up at them and making a soft noise of impatience, wanting to be kissed too.

Seifer was only too happy to oblige. For a while it was just silence, well, silence from them, while a movie went on in the background, and the soft sounds of three fairly hormonal guys kissing, getting close, trying to get closer.

Squall broke the silence with a soft sound, almost a whimper if it'd come from anyone else, pressing closer to Zell and running his fingers through his hair. Seifer grinned a little as he watched.

"Whatever am I going to do with you two?" he asked, still grinning, teasing, as he slipped a hand up Squall's shirt, and Zell shared a look with Squall.

"You're not going to do anything," Squall said, moving to push Seifer back. He bit at his neck and kissed and licked and generally distracted him while Zell got Seifer's pants undone, almost without him noticing.

"We'll do it all," Zell said, grinning.

"Fuck..."

"That'll happen too," Squall said, with warm promise on his voice, and it seemed he'd learned a smile, somewhere along the line, from Zell. 


	4. Tangle

At first, it was mostly about the sex. It wasn't all about the sex, because there were times when they could share glances and understand everything going on in the others' minds, but it was mostly just sex and companionship.

It slipped from that to love slowly.

Zell could almost feel the slipping. He felt it when he woke trapped between Seifer's body and Squall's, his arms around Squall's waist, Seifer's arm draped over his waist. They were tangled together and he felt entirely at ease. He felt it when Squall turned, burying his face against his chest and letting just a hint of fear slither through from his dreams.

But mostly he just let it happen, without noticing it, like the other two.

It occured to Seifer, when he woke once to both of them there, bodies so tangled that he wasn't sure whose limbs were whose. He looked at them, close and so comfortable, and at Squall's open, sleeping face, and smiled. There'd been a time, back when they were on training missions every month or so, and he'd always been paired with Squall, and Squall had always slept with his face hidden, in his pillow or in his sleeping bag. And now he was _smiling_ in his sleep -- the faintest smile ever, but still, a smile, and more amazing because it was _Squall_ smiling.

And Zell... was just Zell, awake and asleep. Except sometime during the sex, his hair had gotten so deflated that he didn't look so much like a chicken or a chocobo anymore.

They'd gotten so close now, the three of them. So intimate.

So happy. 


	5. Last

Zell wriggled a little, getting into a position where Squall's bony elbow wasn't in his side, and then sighed contentedly. His sigh received a questioning murmur from Squall, and a little groan from Seifer that was _more or less_ interested.

"We're... not just a one time thing, are we?" Zell asked, and then, thinking of all the evenings they'd spent watching movies and ending up in bed together, and provided with some brief images and a vague idea of how many times Squall and Seifer had fucked him altogether, quickly corrected himself, "I mean, we're going to last, right?"

Seifer said something that sounded like 'duh', though he'd maintain afterwards that he never said anything so childish, and turned over, wrapping an arm around Zell in a way that let his fingertips brush over Squall's hip as well.

Although Squall didn't say anything, they'd gotten good enough at reading him to know that the little shift closer and the faint smile in his eyes and lingering on his lips said that he agreed.

"Good," Zell breathed, moving closer to Squall and wrapping an arm around him, burying his face in his hair with a foolish little smile.

"I love you. Both of you, I mean."

Seifer and Zell blinked.

They'd never expected Squall to say it first, but there he was, blushing lightly and licking his lips, looking shy and unsure, as if he wasn't sure if he should've said that. They took it in turns to kiss him and echo the feeling, and then Zell turned to give Seifer an uncertain look.

"Chickenwuss," Seifer started, and oofed as he got an elbow in his gut.

"Okay, I get it, _you_ don't love me," Zell said softly, sulkily.

"That's not it."

"Why do you always call me chickenwuss, then?"

"I don't."

"You do."

"I don -- Zell, damn it, I love you, as well."

"Oh."

"Yes oh."

"Just say you love each other and let me get some sleep," Squall said, grumpy, burying his face against Zell's back, pleasantly warm.

"I love you, Zell," Seifer said, quieter and gentler.

"I love you too," Zell said, softly and wonderingly, and they kissed for a minute before they settled down to sleep, as Squall had suggested. 


End file.
